


seeing blind

by starlight_sugar



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Blind Date, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-16 15:32:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16956666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlight_sugar/pseuds/starlight_sugar
Summary: “This is a peppermint mocha cake,” Jester says, swiping through pictures. “This is a gingerbread cupcake with cream cheese frosting. And-” she slips her phone into her purse and gestures across the table. “This is Yasha.”Beau looks up. There’s a woman sitting across from her, looking uncomfortable.(A Beau/Yasha blind date.)





	seeing blind

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! This fic is part of a challenge I do every year called AUcember: I try to write a different AU every day of the month. I was recently asked to post these fics to AO3 in addition to my Tumblr, so this is the first one that's going up here; I'll be crossposting the rest shortly, and you can find them all in the same collection as this fic.
> 
> With infinite, endless thanks to Tam, who told me I absolutely had to write this idea, and who checked it over for before posting.

Jester is being fidgety.

Which, okay, it’s not like that’s unusual. It’s Jester, for Christ’s sake, if she isn’t bouncing her leg up and down Beau starts checking for a pulse. She’s constantly in motion, but this is weird, even for her. She keeps craning her neck and looking around the restaurant, and checking her phone, and giving Beau these weird, terse smiles.

“You’re still paying for dinner, right?” Beau says suspiciously. Because that’s the other thing: this isn’t the kind of place that they usually go to. If Beau offers to take Jester out, they’re probably in a McDonald’s, or a Taco Bell, and it’s probably three in the morning, and Beau is probably still bleeding from the bar fight and owes Jester dinner. If Jester offers, it’s probably not three in the morning, and they’re probably in an Applebee’s. This is… way nicer than an Applebee’s.

“Of course!” Jester says cheerfully. “I promised, didn’t I?”

And then she looks at the fucking door again, and Beau’s eyes narrow. “Are we waiting for something?”

“Nope!”

“Are you lying to me?”

Jester gasps theatrically, eyes going wide with hurt. Beau knows she’s putting it on, but she still actually feels like shit a little bit. “I would never lie to you, Beau,” she declares, and reaches across the table to tap Beau’s nose with a finger. Beau lets her, partly because it’s funny watching Jester try and navigate her hand through the comically huge vase of flowers in the middle of the table, and partly because it’s Jester, and that’s just… what she’s like.

“Okay,” Beau says cautiously. “So, uh, what’s the occasion? Are you proposing?”

Jester winks. Beau scoots her chair back instinctively. “Oh, god, are you proposing? Because I gotta warn you, normally you have to date someone before you ask them to marry you.”

“I’m not proposing!” Jester lifts her hands in a placating gesture. “I just thought it would be nice, you know, we never really talk to each other anymore, I don’t know how you’re doing!”

“That’s completely false.”

“It’s not!” Jester jumps to her feet and rushes over to Beau’s side of the table, phone in hand. Which, okay, weird, but it’s Jester, so it’s whatever. “Look, I probably haven’t even shown you the new recipes we’re working on for the bakery! Don’t you want to see?”

“I want to taste them,” Beau grumbles, but she looks at Jester’s phone obligingly. It’s admittedly cute and Christmasy. Jester works at the most picturesque bakery that Beau has ever seen. It’s like a Hallmark movie, but better, because Beau can eat the food.

“This is a peppermint mocha cake,” Jester says, swiping through pictures. “This is a gingerbread cupcake with cream cheese frosting. And-” she slips her phone into her purse and gestures across the table. “This is Yasha.”

Beau looks up. There’s a woman sitting across from her, looking really fucking uncomfortable.

“What,” Beau says, which is when she notices fucking Mollymauk standing behind Yasha. Mollymauk, who has been threatening to set Beau up on a date for about two months now. She groans. “You  _ motherfucker- _ ”

“You said we were going out for dinner,” Yasha says slowly. She’s staring across the table at Beau pretty blankly, which Beau can’t blame her for, if Molly did the same thing to her that Jester is doing to Beau. “This… isn’t just us.”

“I’m afraid it’s not,” Molly says cheerfully, clapping Yasha’s shoulder. “You see, Beauregard here is chronically single, and trying to stay that way-”

“Fuck you,” Beau says automatically.

Molly doesn’t even pause, although his lips twitch into a smile, which Beau fucking hates. “And Jester and I thought it would be nice to see if we could make you both some new friends. Namely, each other.”

“We’re doing this for your own good,” Jester adds. She looks totally unapologetic when Beau turns to glare at her. “Both of you! It’ll be good for both of you.”

“What if it’s not?” Beau asks, because that seems like a pretty serious possibility. Yasha is definitely hot, which goes a long way. She’s wearing a tank top, which is out of place in the restaurant they’re in, but Beau’s not about to fucking complain about being able to see her arms. But hot Yasha also seems distinctly unhappy to be sitting across from Beau right now, and that’s not exactly the vibe that Beau wants on a first date.

“Then you call me and I pick you up.” Jester puts a credit card down on the table, which, holy shit, Beau could buy  _ so much shit _ with Jester’s credit card and Jester wouldn’t even blink. “This is for dinner, it’s on us, so don’t worry about that.”

“Just worry about each other,” Molly says, and winks, because he is the absolute fucking worst.

“I hope you trip and fall on the way out,” Beau says, because she’s also kind of the worst, but at least she’s willing to admit it.

Molly tuts, which is the Molly equivalent of laughing at her. Beau hates his fucking guts. “Is that any way to talk to someone doing you a favor?”

“This isn’t a favor, this is coercion.”

“And I’m enjoying the coercion greatly.”

Beau rolls her eyes. “Fucking whatever. Are we still on for Tuesday?”

“Wouldn’t miss it.” Molly reaches down and sweeps a lock of Yasha’s hair out of her face. “Do try to have fun, won’t you?”

“Sure,” Yasha says. She doesn’t sound particularly enthused.

Jester leans down and smacks a kiss on Beau’s temple - or, well, she’s probably aiming for Beau’s temple, but she lands closer to the corner of Beau’s eye. “Good luck!”

“Weird thing to say when she’s right in front of me,” Beau says, but Molly and Jester are already sweeping out of the restaurant, and she has bigger things to worry about. Like the buff woman in front of her. “Uh, hey. I’m Beau.”

“Yasha,” says Yasha. And that’s it.

Beau nods. Cool. She can work with that. “So, uh, Molly, huh?”

Yasha looks at her blankly. “What about him?”

“How do you know him?”

“We work together.”

Molly works at - fuck, Beau doesn’t even know. It might be a theatre troupe, it might be a circus, he might just be… like that. Either way, none of those answers mesh at all with Yasha, who is significantly less colorful and significantly less flashy than Molly.

“That’s cool,” Beau says after a few seconds. Yasha doesn’t seem to notice the fact that Beau is floundering, which is… good? Beau’s going to take it as a good thing. “He’s kind of a dick,” she says, by way of conversation. Because when in doubt, you should insult the one person you know your date is friends with. Good going, Beauregard.

But one corner of Yasha’s mouth actually tilts up into something approaching a smile. “Yeah,” she says. “But he’s Mollymauk, you know?”

“Yeah,” Beau says, because she does know. It’s kind of a relief that someone else gets it. “You know, he’s been telling me about you for a few weeks now. Mostly he just keeps saying that you’re tall, over and over.”

Yasha actually smiles at that. Fuck. Beau is so fucking fucked already. “He’s not wrong.”

Beau looks Yasha up and down. She does look tall, first of all, and second of all, she looks about as at home in this bougie restaurant as Beau does. This place was definitely Jester’s idea: high romance, flowers on the table, lighting that isn’t dim enough that Beau has to squint but is definitely dim enough that she’s having trouble making out details. Yasha is wearing work boots, which doesn’t fit at all, and is kind of perfect.

Beau leans forward and props her elbows on the table. “I have an idea.”

“An idea,” Yasha repeats. “What’s your idea?”

“Well, this isn’t my type of place, and I’m guessing it’s not yours. But-” Beau picks up Jester’s credit card and waves it. “We have this. And I know a pretty cool sports bar a couple blocks down.”

Yasha tilts her head. She’s not smiling anymore, but Beau still kind of feels like she’s being smiled at. It’s weird, and she likes it. “Are you into sports, Beau?”

“I’m into drinking. And making a lot of noise. So sports bars are cool.”

“Sports bars are cool,” Yasha agrees. Her shoulders are still definitely tense, drawn up around her ears, but she seems like she’s relaxing a little bit. It feels like a good sign.

Beau grins. “Let’s get out of here, then.”

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on Tumblr and Twitter @waveridden!


End file.
